A DNA test for sex identification in cattle confirms osteometric results

It is of vital importance to be able to sex identify cattle remains to understand the strategies and importance of cattle husbandry in an ancient society. This is usually done from osteoarchaeological assemblages and often relies on measurements of metapodials. The breadth measurement of the distal trochlea is considered an easy way to identify the sex. Bones from males appears to be easily distinguishable from female counterparts, although it has been complicated to find an external control for the morphological results. Here we investigate the reliability of these particular morphometrics for sex identifying cattle bones with molecular genetics. We use a sex discriminating single nucleotide polymorphism in the ZFXY gene and we apply it to DNA from the bones. To keep the fragment size short and suitable for ancient DNA we base the test on a SNP. The test confirms the osteological sex identification in all cases were DNA could be retrieved. This molecular method can also be used when no fragments suitable for osteological sex identification can be found or when the measurements are non-conclusive.     

The Effect of Social Networks on Resource Access and Business Start-ups

In previous research, entrepreneurs' social networks are expected to influence entrepreneurial success because they give access to resources. This is confirmed in this study. In most research it is also believed that network features such as strength of ties determine to a great extent what kind of resources the entrepreneur receives. Although this last assumption has important implications for entrepreneurship research and for practice, the validity of the assumption has not been put to the test in previous research. The analysis of data from an empirical study of entrepreneurs in Norway gives at best partial support for the assumption. Contrary to what should be expected, the results indicate that strong ties are important channels for information and that weak ties give access to finance.     

Development Thinking—Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice

Theoretically, Development Studies has been claimed to be moving out of its previous impasse. However, its policy implication has traditionally been rather weak, and on this account no large improvements are presently visible. A strong call for relevancy has emerged in the middle of the 1990s, from the same writers who claim that we are now moving beyond the impasse in development theory. Somehow this opens up a niche for development geography, if its strong background in field work can be combined in a dialogue based on theoretical issues. This paper illustrates how the teaching of development in the field can bring up new issues, to be discussed thoroughly within some kind of a dialectical dialogue. The teaching of development finds itself trapped in a controversy, that could be termed as a development crisis. However, existing contradictions in the debate can nurture the more intense probing into the nature of development. Combined with field work experience, this paves the way for a dialogue in which many of the axiomatic truths are turned upside-down. Matters—such as the conflict between modernization and traditional values, the meaning of development, and the role of various actors in the development process—are all focused in an intensive discussion.     

Deconstructing/Reconstructing Ethnicity

Abstract. Ethnicity is here viewed as a continuum, varying widely in terms of salience, intensity and meaning, along which several types of ethnicity can be distinguished. Domination ethnicity is where a nation imposes monocultural control – it can be regarded as a form of ethnicity. Enclosure ethnicity has three variants – dormant ethnicity, cultural confinement, and inward-looking ethnicity. Competition ethnicity competes over resources of the state and development. Finally, optional ethnicity is of low intensity and is light, volitional and fluid, as in the case of ethnic entrepreneurs and symbolic ethnicity. What is considered as well are the dynamics of ethnicity, shifting from one mode to another. The politics of ethnicity is here taken up in terms of emancipation and domination. Perspectives on ethnicity are framed by the changing meanings of ethnicity over time. The final question concerns the endgames of ethnicity, or the paths of change of different types of ethnicity, and how each relates to ethnic conflict regulation.